Saturday, July 12, 2008

With energy in the news as much as it is, you can imagine how busy things are here at CARE. There are new projects to work on and new people to meet everyday. We were thrilled when the following piece on nuclear power came our way. Additionally, it introduced us to a new expert: Bernard L. Weinstein, a professor at North Texas University. We contacted him and he gave us permission to share his insights with you. While the emphasis of his posting is on the state of Texas, we believe the universal application is obvious. As America moves forward, nuclear power becomes an economic imperative.

Nuclear Plants Offer Powerful Energy AlternativeWith consumers paying more than $4 a gallon for gasoline, the media and the politicians have been fixated on ways to expand the nation's supply of fossil fuels and other energy sources.

Should we open the outer- continental shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for exploration and drilling? Does it now make economic sense to extract oil from shale and tar sands? Should Congress extend or increase the tax breaks for ethanol, solar and wind energy? What are the prospects for clean coal technology?

Absent from the debate has been much serious discussion about the potential contribution of nuclear power plants to the nation's energy needs.

Though opponents of nuclear energy don't harp as much on the safety issue as they once did, they still claim nuclear plants are too expensive to build and operate.

However, $140-a-barrel oil has radically changed the economics of nuclear power. On a nominal basis, it may still appear noncompetitive because of the "cheaper" price of coal.

But the price of coal doesn't reflect the high cost that carbon emissions pose to the environment. Rising natural gas prices are also making nuclear a more competitive power source.

Texas currently relies on natural gas for 72 percent of its electric generating capacity, compared with a national average of 46 percent. Coal accounts for 19 percent of Texas' capacity, while the state's four nuclear plants produce only 6 percent – even though they are among the top-performing in the world, boasting average capacity factors of 92 to 95 percent.

Pursuing the nuclear alternative has become an economic imperative. With natural gas prices up 70 percent this year, power costs in Texas are now among the highest in the nation, a situation that doesn't bode well for the state's energy-intensive industries.

For example, to offset higher energy costs, Dow Chemical has raised prices twice in the past month. Other manufacturers, large and small, are getting hammered by high and rising electricity costs.

And five retail electric providers in Texas have failed this year because of the huge increases in the cost of purchased power from the state's gas-fired generating plants.

Texas, with its trillion-dollar economy, is projected to continue growing at a faster clip than any other large state for the foreseeable future. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas estimates we'll need more than 100,000 megawatts of new power within 10 to 15 years just to keep up with demand.

Because new coal plants are more or less off the table, and because wind and solar energy aren't substitutes for base-load power plants, nuclear is the sensible option for helping to meet the growing power needs.

NRG Energy, based in Princeton, N.J., has filed an application to build a reactor adjacent to its existing plant in Bay City. Exelon, Luminant and Amarillo Power are also evaluating the prospect of new nuclear plants. If all these plans materialize, Texas could have more reactors than any other state a decade from now.

To remain competitive, Texas must offer an attractive economic environment and cost structure on all fronts – including electric power.

Adding more nuclear plants to the fuel mix will diversify Texas' energy sources, ensure reliability and help hold down electric power costs. And because nuclear plants don't pollute or emit greenhouse gases, the Texas environment will benefit, as well.

Bernard L. Weinstein is director of the Center for Economic Development and Research and a professor of applied economics at the University of North Texas. His e-mail address is budw@scs.unt.edu.

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Dennis T. Averyhas been quoted in publications ranging from Time and The Washington Post to The Farm Journal. His article, “What's Wrong with Global Warming?” was published in the August 1999 issue of Reader's Digest. With S. Fred Singer, Avery is the coauthor of Unstoppable Global Warming; Every 1500 Years. He travels the world as a speaker, has testified before Congress, and has appeared on most of the nation's major television networks, including a program discussing the bacterial dangers of organic foods on ABC's 20/20. Avery studied agricultural economics at Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin. He holds awards for outstanding performance from three different government agencies and was awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement in 1983. In addition to lending his expertise to CARE as a member of the Energy Counsel, Dennis Avery currently serves as Director, Center for Global Food Issues and is a Senior Fellow for the Hudson Institute is a non-partisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom.

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Robert L. Bradley, Jr. is one of the nation’s leading experts on the history and regulation of energy and related sustainable development issues. He has presented professional testimony on energy issues to the California Energy Commission and United States Senate; his opinion-page editorials on energy policy have appeared in the New York Times and many other newspapers across the country; his energy views have been aired on National Public Radio, Voice of America, CBS Radio Network, and Armed Forces Radio, as well as local programs. Bradley is a multi-published author whose most widely read book is Energy: the Master Resource (with Richard Fulmer). His newest is Capitalism at Work: Business, Government and Energy. He holds a B.A. in economics, a masters in economics from the University of Houston, and a Ph.D. in political economy from International College. Bradley is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics, the American Economics Association, and the American Historical Association. He is CEO and founder of the Institute for Energy Research in Houston; visiting fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London; an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute; and a member of the academic review committee of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.

Paul Driessen’scareer has included staff tenures with the United States Senate, Department of the Interior and an energy trade association. He has spoken and written frequently on energy and environmental policy, global climate change, corporate social responsibility, and on marine life associated with oil platforms off the coasts of California and Louisiana. Driessen received his BA in geology and field ecology from Lawrence University, JD from the University of Denver College of Law, and accreditation in public relations from the Public Relations Society of America. A former member of the Sierra Club and Zero Population Growth, he abandoned their cause when he recognized that the environmental movement had become intolerant in its views, inflexible in its demands, unwilling to recognize our tremendous strides in protecting the environment, and insensitive to the needs of billions of people who lack the food, electricity, safe water, healthcare and other basic necessities that we take for granted. Driessen is a senior fellow with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, nonprofit public policy institutes that focus on energy, the environment, economic development and international affairs.

Michael J. Economidesis among America's leading energy analysts who regularly appears on national TV and radio programs. As a consultant, educator, and PhD petroleum engineer, Economides has done technical and managerial work in more than 70 countries. A professor at the Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston, Economides has written or co-written about 200 articles and peer-reviewed papers and 11 textbooks. Economides is the Editor-in-Chief for the Energy Tribunemagazine. He is also the co-author, with Ron Oligney, of the industry primer, The Color of Oil: The History, the Money and the Politics of the World's Biggest Business, which was published in 2000 and has since been translated into five languages. CARE is honored to include Michael Economides as a member of the Energy Counsel.

Michael R. Fox, Ph.D., is a retired nuclear scientist and university chemistry professor. He is the science and energy writer/reporter for the HawaiiReport.com. A resident of Kaneohe, Hawaii, he has nearly 40 years experience in the energy field. His interests and activities in the communications of science, energy, and the environment has led to several communications awards, hundreds of speeches, and many appearances on television and talk shows. Dr. Fox is listed by the Heartland Institute as a global warming/climate change expert. He is also the Senior Fellow for Science at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. He can be reached via email at mfox@grassrootinstitute.org. Please visit Dr. Mike Fox's blog at http://www.foxreport.org/.

Byron King is the resident energy and natural resource expert at Agora Financial, LLC. A geologist by training, he worked for the former Gulf Oil Company and has followed oil industry developments for over 30 years. Byron’s career path also took him into the U.S. Navy, both active duty and reserve. In the 1990s and 2000s Byron engaged in a vigorous private law practice. For the past five years Byron has been writing about energy and natural resource issues for an international audience. Currently, Byron writes and edits two major publications, Outstanding Investments and Energy and Scarcity Investor. Byron holds degrees from Harvard, the U.S. Naval War College and the University of Pittsburgh.

Tom Tanton is the Principal of T2 & Associates, a firm providing consulting services to the energy and technology industries. Mr. Tanton has over 35 years experience in the energy, economy, and environmental fields.